Like the secret in a riddle of door inside a key
An enigma in the sparkle of a teardrop’s mystery
Like the spinning ballerina in a silent music box
Of a tsar inside a star, in the gaze of the sly fox
Like the firebird’s deep wisdom, in a shallow dragon cell
Or the promise of forever in a wilted scarlet spell
Like the shattered broken whole is the spacious Russian soul
Like a symphony’s poema in whisper of a scream
Or the weeping in the laughter of a dying Cossack’s gleam
Like the coldest summer’s rivers and the warmest winter’s bath
Like the mercy in a sentence after God’s horrific wrath
The pliés inside a battle of a lovesick poet’s duel
And the letters, oh the letters, of the lover and the fool
Like the embers of hot coal is the frozen Russian soul
Like the crime within redemption of a sunset come too soon
Or the light within the darkness of the birch woods and the moon
In the magic of a gold egg in a doll inside a bear
In a fairytale of rhyming words with song, while earth with air
In the question of an answer and the friend within the foe
Lies the meaning of this cypher, lies the yes within the no
Like an ancient coded scroll is the open Russian soul
Viktoriya Neverov-Krstic 2020
